GDSN Newsletter No. 2 - GS1

GDSN Newsletter
no. 2 – September 2008
Also in this issue:
GDSN in action................ 1
• Synchronising data at Kraft Foods: an
ongoing journey
• Coop and Mars: committed to global
data synchronisation
• Global gdsn Healthcare pilot
successfully completed
• Uk survey results reveal importance of
data quality programmes
News from GDSN-Certified
data pools .................... 3
• Data is foundational: synchronising
hardlines with big hammer
• Commport in canada expecting
a great 2008
• Ghx to become gdsn-certified data
pool to accelerate use of gs1 standards
in healthcare
Status updates
& accomplishments ........... 5
• First results from Project etoile:
“gdsn works.”
• Call to action: gsmp Healthcare gdsn
extension work group
• Preparing gdsn for future expansion
Access a wide variety of downloadable
resources and information
www.gs1.org/gdsn
GDSN in action
Synchronising data at Kraft Foods:
an ongoing journey
Jochen Rackebrandt of Kraft Foods, spoke at the GS1 General Assembly in May
2008 where he shared the history of data synch at Kraft, which he qualified as a
“journey” that is still underway:
1 st US
Explanatory of
Data Exchange
(UCCnet)
Equity Investor in
Transora
(now 1Sync)
Industry Driven
Kraft Driven
1999 2000 2001 2002 2004 2005 2007
B2B Exchanges
Heat Up!
1 st Live Trading
Partner – Shaws
(Supervalu
Division)
GSMP Facilate’s
Global Industry
Standard
1 st GDSN
Standards
Adopted
Internal
Development
begins – Quest
for GDS Platform
1 st Europe
Trading
Partnership
established
Ongoing
Expansion and
Partnership with
Etoile
Currently, Kraft is live with GDS is 12 countries, with a great deal of future potential.
In the Americas, Kraft has full catalogue implementations with major customers in
both the U.S and Canada; and more limited activity in Mexico and South America.
In Europe, Kraft is using GDSN with customers in France, Belgium, Netherlands,
Italy and U.K. with the Kraft Global System, and using local Data Pools in Germany,
Finland, Denmark, Sweden with local Kraft systems. With their “Project Etoile”
partners, Kraft is developing implementation plans for Spain and exchanging test
data with Makro in U.K. They are also exploring opportunities in Russia.
Kraft has an end-to-end GDS Process Flow, which is built around master data that
has a common infrastructure. There is continuous harmonisation of data by one data
owner with one internal and external feed; and there is also
at Kraft a true effort to provide certified data quality
via ongoing compliance tracking against
policies as well as periodic audits.
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There is in fact a data certification pilot that is underway at
Kraft in the US as an ongoing process through which the values
of key product attributes are verified through sampling
and inspection, in order to continuously understand and
track the accuracy of a product at any stage in its development.
Kraft began with a data accuracy audit as this “point in
time” verification of product attributes is a key starting point
for gauging data quality. 4,000 cases of samples (2,000 SKUs)
from multiple manufacturing plants were audited, with nearly
150 attributes collected
for all package levels:
case, inner pack, even
each unit.
“GDS will not work when
companies are not doing
their homework.”
The audit confirmed
that many inaccuracies
exist in weights and dimensions; and proved that poor data
quality causes inefficiencies. For example, one setup error in
a product specification impacts 20 functions. The audit allowed
Kraft to gain valuable experience, identify values for
“new” attributes not currently maintained, and perhaps most
importantly, obtain senior management awareness, commitment
and funding.
Among some of the many lessons learnt in the data
certification audit:
• Products need to be grouped and harmonised by “family,”
whether it be brand, consumer unit, dimensions or
functional name
• Consistent certification environments and methods must
be utilised: the same tools at every collection site, the
same processes for measuring
• Education and Training are essential
• Internal Master Data certification indicators (such as
certification date and status) are critical to maintaining
and tracking data quality
“Global Data Synchronisation will not work when companies
are not doing their homework,” Jochen noted in conclusion,
adding “Kraft is committed to working hand-in-hand with
its trading partners to drive mutual data synchronisation
benefits.”
COOP and Mars: committed to global data
synchronisation
Coop is a Swiss cooperative which operates the second largest
supermarket chain in Switzerland. Close to its customers and
organised in five sales regions, Coop operates over 1,500
stores and has a workforce of more than 48,000, making it
the country’s third-largest employer. Coop is a market leader
in environmentally friendly and fair-trade products.
Mars, Inc. is a worldwide manufacturer of confectionery, pet
food and other food products with US$25 billion in annual
sales in 2007 and 48,000 associates. Headquartered in
McLean, Virginia, U.S., the company is entirely owned by the
Mars family, making it one of the largest privately owned U.S.
corporations.
Both companies are committed to global data synchronisation.
Coop is aiming to be synchronising data with 70 business
partners by the end of 2008; Mars is live with various U.S.
customers (including Wal-Mart and Wegmans) with petfood
at COOP Italy, with snackfood and food at COOP Switzerland;
and is performing
tests with Makro in
the UK. At the GDSN
Summer Meeting in
June, Simone Sporing
from COOP
Switzerland and Martina Gerndt from Mars Europe spoke
about the trustful relationship between their companies
which enabled a true collaborative effort.
“For a GDSN programme to be
successful, a special commitment
to data quality is a must.”
In their work on GDS, the two companies have seen the many
benefits of global data synchronisation, such as integrated
and automated processes; highly improved data quality and
therefore reduced out of stocks, reduced warehouse and
distribution costs and reduced financial reconciliation time
and cost; increased speed to market and therefore better
shelf availability, especially if there are last minute changes;
and one single source of data entry leading to improved
information productivity.
They have also learnt a number of important lessons. For
example, they feel that for successful GDSN projects, a special
commitment to improve data quality is a must; as are lean
processes that align information, people and technology. The
companies find it is wise to start with the smallest number of
attributes for a fixed number of items, and to thoroughly test
the connectivity between the datapools before beginning.
Global GDSN Healthcare pilot successfully
completed
The Healthcare sector is facing inaccurate or bad data at many
points in the supply chain. These do not only add cost (e.g.,
inefficiencies, manual work-arounds), but may also impact
patient safety (disruptions may result in the unavailability of
products). The Global Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN)
allows the sharing of reliable master data between the supply
and demand functions. The objectives of this Healthcare
pilot study were to demonstrate how the GDSN supports
the Healthcare supply chain and product data needs (data
flow, data standards, data accuracy and product and location
identification) and to demonstrate how the GDSN works
across international boundaries (interoperability among data
pools in different countries/continents).
GDSN Newsletter
No. 2 – September 2008 page 2/5

“The main problem today, related to master data, is the lack
of consistent data standards which are causing inefficiency in
the supply chain. Without standards it is almost impossible to
streamline electronic processes”, said Volker Zeinar, B.Braun,
“We also want to avoid uploading data again and again.
We trust the methodology of GDSN and are convinced that
this model has the potential to become a success story in
Healthcare.”
“Premier has learnt, from this pilot, that the technology
works in various settings and that we are in a good position
to connect to and receive data from the GDSN”, said Lance
Richey, Premier, Inc. “We have also learnt that the content of
the data received varies depending on the supplier. We will
work with our suppliers and the industry to improve and
standardise the attributes flowing through the GDSN. A high
level review of just two of the processes within Premier will
net a saving of US$250,000 in labour in the first year”.
Participating suppliers were Baxter, B.Braun and BD (Australia).
Participants from the demand side were Amerinet, Ascension,
Mayo, Premier and Sister of Mercy (USA). The pilot team
consisted of representatives from 1SYNC, US Department of
Defense, GS1net (GS1 Australia GDSN-certified data pool),
GS1 US and Ontuet.
UK survey results reveal importance of Data
Quality Programmes
To ascertain the state of data accuracy in today’s UK supply
chain, and gain a true idea of the extent of the problem, the
GS1 UK Data Synchronisation Group recently carried out a
survey of UK retailers, suppliers and food service operators.
Participants included
ASDA, Makro,
Cadbury, Boots,
Compass, Woodwards,
Reckitt
Benckiser, Unilever,
Procter & Gamble,
Heinz, Nestlé, R&R
Ice Cream, L’Oréal
and Mars.
The survey results
demonstrated the
extent of the work
to be done by both retailers and suppliers to improve the
processes that deliver supply chain ultimately the data quality
itself. Consider these figures: 30% of the product information
resident in retail catalogues is incorrect. On average,
data errors cost organisations £40 per item to be manually
corrected. The biggest worry over data quality that emerges
from the survey is that data is not being delivered by suppliers
in a timely manner before a new product launch. Ultimately,
the cost of the top four retailers of the resulting data
errors and the shelf unavailability is up to £10 million a year,
this equates to £43 million of sales.
Read the complete report in the Summer edition of GSQ,
(http://edition2a.intellimag.com/?id=gsqsum08&page=26)
the quarterly magazine from GS1 UK.
News from GDSN-certified data pools
Data is foundational: synchronising Hardlines
with Big Hammer
with 5,500 suppliers and over 300,000 product items, which
include 21 million product attributes.
Jay S. Yanko, Director of Global Data Synchronisation at
Edgenet / Big Hammer Data, puts his company’s philosophy
bluntly: “Data is foundational, and as a result, GDSN is
important to us and to our customers.”
Big Hammer Data is a GDSN-certified data pool and a whollyowned
subsidiary of Edgenet, Inc, a Nashville, Tennessee
company providing data, media and software solutions. The
firm has a 15-year heritage in building supplies retail and
manufacturing. The Big Hammer Hardlines Marketing Data
Pool is the largest private data pool in the hardlines industry,
Beyond just a method of identifying products and packaging,
Big Hammer knows that global data synchronisation
provides a common ground for accurate information used
in optimisation efforts
and cost reduction
programmes.
“Create an internal
vision and involve all the right
stakeholders, from the start.”
GDSN Newsletter
No. 2 – September 2008 page 3/5

The hardlines industry faces a number of challenges:
They exist in what Yanko calls “a CPG World,” a difficult
task considering the very different nature of the business.
Hardlines means large ticket items and highly configurable
products and projects; very diverse suppliers; and a current
focus on increasing sales, improving the customer experience
and boosting follow-through and communication.
When asked about what advice he could give to companies
beginning a data sync programme, Jay Yako replied that
they should start by creating an internal vision and involving
all the right stakeholders, including people from Sales and
Marketing, Product Development, Logistics and Business,
because GDS is not a silo activity. Companies engaging this
process need to know what product data means to their
business and to their trading partner’s business, because. A
data quality programme is also important.
For more information, visit www.bighammer.com
Commport in Canada expecting a great 2008
Commport provides its
customers with Electronic
Data Interchange (EDI) and
Electronic Commerce (EC)
solutions; data warehousing;
and complete customer care
facilities. A privately owned corporation based in Ontario,
Canada, Commport serves firms located across the North
American continent. Commport has been promoting the
paperless work environment for over 15 years.
Commport became a GDSN-certified data pool in 2005. The
first few years were slow, but Alison Bartlet, the company’s
Director of Marketing, says that 2008 is off to a fantastic
start: “Sales are up by 250%, mostly thanks to our efforts on
a few key initiatives including the Book industry, our efforts
to reach out to GDSN Retailers and our work with Canada’s
largest industrial supplies distributor.”
The company offers its customers a core GDSN-certified data
pool solution as well as a range of value-added services that
are customised, flexible, and multi-lingual.
Commport is active in a market where there is an established
local closed data pool in operation, which presents a
challenge, as does the fact that they are a commercial
enterprise in a field dominated by not-for-profit data pools.
“2008 is off to a fantastic start!”
For more information, visit www.commport.com or
www.cgsdatapool.com
GHX to become GDSN-certified data pool to
accelerate use of GS1 Standards in Healthcare
GHX has announced plans to become part of GS1’s Global
Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN) as a GDSN-certified
data pool for the Healthcare industry. At the core of all GHX
services is an Internet-based trading exchange, which is
open to, and owned by, representatives from all members of
the Healthcare supply chain including; providers, suppliers,
distributors and group purchasing organisations (GPOs).
Globally, GHX is connected to over 5,000 hospitals in North
America and nine European countries. This includes hospitals
representing more than 80% percent of the licensed beds in
the U.S. and 350 suppliers that sell more than 85% of the
products purchased regularly by hospitals.
“The Healthcare
industry has recognised
that adopting
GS1 Standards
for product and
organisational
identification and
synchronising data
through the GDSN
can address many of
the most challenging
problems facing
the healthcare
supply chain,” Bruce
Johnson, GHX Chief
Executive Officer.
“GHX is pleased to
help accelerate GS1
Standards adoption
by not only becoming a data pool, but also through our
membership and participation in global and local GS1 working
groups.” Many of GHX’s 20 equity owners are already engaged
in GS1 Healthcare and encouraged GHX to become
part of the GDSN to leverage what the Healthcare industry
has already built to facilitate more accurate electronic commerce
and communication.
GHX will build out its current infrastructure to meet specific
GS1 GDSN requirements, with certification as a data pool
expected in 2009.
Equity owners of GHX are Abbott Exchange, Inc.,
AmerisourceBergen Corp., Baxter Healthcare Corp., BBraun
Medical Inc., Becton, Dickinson & Co., Boston Scientific Corp.,
Cardinal Health, Inc., Covidien, C.R. Bard, Inc., Fisher Scientific
International, Inc., GE Healthcare, HCA, Johnson & Johnson
Health Care Systems Inc., McKesson Corp., Medtronic USA,
Inc., Owens & Minor, Premier, Inc., Siemens, University
HealthSystem Consortium and VHA Inc.
For more information, visit www.ghx.com
GDSN Newsletter
No. 2 – September 2008 page 4/5

Status updates & accomplishments
First results from Project Etoile: “GDSN works.”
Project Etoile is the premier GDSN adoption programme
backed by the Boards of GCI, GS1 and GDSN, Inc. Over the
course of 2007, 8 data pools, 12 retailers
and 25 manufacturers in France, Germany,
Netherlands, Spain, the UK and the USA
participated in Etoile.
Etoile 2007 demonstrated that the GS1
GDSN infrastructure is in place and
that it works: trading partners who
are internally aligned and focused on
executing data synchronisation through
the GDSN are seeing results. It proved
that through the existence of the GS1
GDSN, businesses can achieve growth,
realise efficiencies and cost savings, and see business process
improvements, even from the very first synchronisation event.
As just one example, active trading partner synchronisation
connections by participants in Etoile 2007 increased from 34
to 100 in one year.
Participants found that companies or regions just beginning
the global data synchronsation journey learnt different
lessons than those companies with some level of GDS
experience. For example, new trading partners connecting
to the GDSN learnt that acceptance and use of it depends
heavily on retailer commitment and readiness, and that
successful implementation of GDS projects is complex to
manage and requires support from top level executives, as
well as involvement and engagement from every level of the
organisation. The project also revealed that in order to truly
eliminate disruptions in data flow enabled by GDS, successful
companies have changed their internal systems to integrate
information from GDSN directly into back-end systems.
The earlier adopters learnt that proactive suppliers benefited
from more GDSN connections with retailers than those who
wait for retailer mandates. They saw that sharing accurate
product data is a strategic imperative. Etoile 2007 also
demonstrated that the internal business process automation
made possible by full implementation of the GDSN allowed
them to eliminate non-value added work.
In 2008, Etoile is continuing to focus on connectivity
and interoperability and beginning to address the other
two project components: Data Quality Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs), and Business Process Automation
improvements. Etoile will also expand to include Belgium/
Luxembourg and China.
For more information, read the Etoile 2007 Report on lessons
learned at http://www.gs1.org/docs/gdsn/Etoile_2007_
Report_Lessons_Learned_GDSN_and_Interoperability.pdf.
Call to Action:
GSMP Healthcare GDSN Extension Work Group
GS1’s Global Standards Management Process, or GSMP,
has issued a call-to-action for the GSMP Healthcare GDSN
Extension Work Group, in order to define additional
healthcare data requirements and to build a Healthcare
Extension for the GDSN.
Once the new data requirements are properly defined, including
supporting attributes and rules, they will become part of
a Healthcare Extension for the GDSN and will enhance the
GDSN’s ability to support the needs of the global healthcare
sector. For more information, contact Peter Alvarez at peter.
alvarez@gs1.org or read the Call To Action itself at http://
www.gs1.org/services/gsmp/involve/call_to_action.html.
Preparing GDSN for future expansion
GS1 GDSN, Inc. and GSMP published a position statement in
support of a project created to assess opportunities to improve
the flexibility of the infrastructure of the GS1 Global
Data Synchronisation Network (GDSN) and develop means to
facilitate future expansion of the network. Given the GDSN focus
is on growth and adoption, the network must ensure it is
positioned to accommodate the additional growth and associated
volume. A more flexible trade item data model would
provide the opportunity to more efficiently support GDSN
expansion, in particular to easily enter into new sectors or adjacent
sectors, increasing the adoption of GDSN, particularly
by new industry sectors and geographies, to reduce the time
required to introduce new attributes or code values into the
network, and to minimise the re-mapping effort required to
implement new versions of the standard. GS1 GDSN, Inc. and
GSMP are committed to work closely with the community to
facilitate the development and a smooth implementation of
a new and much needed trade item data model.
Read the complete position statement at http://www.
gs1.org/docs/gdsn/GDSN_GSMP_Position_Statement_
Modular_Item.pdf.
The GDSN Newsletter is a publication of:
GS1 GDSN
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Publisher: Sally Herbert, sally.herbert@gs1gdsn.org
Editors: Jan Denecker, jan.denecker@gs1.org
Visit: www.gs1.org/gdsn
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